patterson



(N0 Msdel.)

J. E. PATTERSON.

COMBINED AGGOUNT BOOK AND HOLDER. No. 425,455. Patented Apr. 15. 1890.

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. UNITED STATES ATENT JOH II. PATTERSON, OF DAYTON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE NATIONAL CASH REGISTER COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

COMBlNED ACCOUNT BOOK AND HOLDER.

SPEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 425,455,;lated April 15, 1890.

Application filed June 24, 1839. erial No. 315,337. (No modeld To all 2.0700721, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN H. PATTERSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Dayton, in the county of Montgomery and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Combined Account Books and Holders, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,

forming part of this specification.

'lhe object of my invention is to simplify and lessen the labor of keeping petty accounts in stores where it is the practice for the sales men or saleswomen to make duplicate itemized sales-slips of all sales, or at least of all credit sales, one of which duplicates is given to the customer with the goods purchased and the other is sent to the book-keeping depart ment to be entered on the proper books. In such establishments it is usually the practice to transfer the items appearing on the salesslips to the blotter or sales-book in detail, from which they are carried to the various account-books, according to the system of bookkeeping employed, being finally entered on the ledger simply as Mdse.. of a certain gross amount on a certain date. It results from this practice that not only does each separate item appearing on the sales-slip have to be transferred to and entered upon at least one book, but when it is desired to render a bill to the customer such book has to be referred to for an explanation of each of the Mdse. entries appearing on the ledger. I have provided an improved account book and holder forsuch sales-slips,by the use of which, in the manner hereinafter described, all entries of the separate items of said slips on the sales-book, day-book, or other books employed is rendered entirely unnecessary either for the mere purpose of preserving the items of the account or for reference to them in rendering bills of the same.

The novelty of my invention will be herein set forth, and specifically pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of my improved account book and bolder. Fig. iis a perspective view 50 of a pad of blank bill-heads to be used in connection therewith.

ness at the binding.

My improved combined book and holder consists of any suitably-shaped bound and indexed book A, to the leaves B of which are permanently secured in any convenient manner the blank envelopes or pockets 0, closed at their sides and bottoms and open at their tops. Extending across and secured to each of these envelopes are two or more rubber hands a, beneath which is inserted the billhead D, suitably ruled, as indicated, for the entry of the debit and credit items of an account and to have the name of the customer written on its top. Stub-leaves E are bound in with the leaves B to give proper thick- When the sales-slips are sent to the book-keepers desk by the salesmen, each is inserted in its proper envelope C in the book, and the aggregate amount of its items, together with the date and the number of the slip, (if numbered) are indors'ed on the bill-head D, which is detachably held on the outside of said envelope. If at any time the customer makes a payment on account, the amountis entered on the credit side of this bill-head, and thus the entire account is kept there. At the end of the month, or at such other time as it is desired to render the customer a bill, the bill-head D itself is slipped out from under the rubber hands a, the balance struck on it. and it is sent directly to the customer as a bill. The sales-slips in the envelopes, which contain the items of the account, can be taken out and pinned together, or a rubber band put around them, and be putback in the envelope and preserved until the account is paid. In the meantime, if the account with the customer is expected to continue, a fresh bill-head is inserted under the hands a and the customers name written on it, and as additional credit sales are made to the customerthe sales-slips are inserted in the envelope, as before, (being kept separate from the old ones, because the latter are pinned or otherwise held together,) and the aggregate amount of the items on each new slip is entered on the new bill-head D, as in the first instance. In this manner the individual items appearing on the sales-slip, which items are generally quite small and often numerous, are not required to be written but once, and that by the salesman when the sale is made, so that the book-keeper is relieved of all such labor and the keeping of the account much cheapened and simplified.

It will of course be understood that the loose bill-heads D maybe detachably secured to the envelopes G by other means than the rubber bands aas, for instance, by having their corners inserted in slits in the envelopes or slightly secured thereto with mucilage.

I am aware that it has heretofore been proposed to keep petty accounts in a manner and by a system similar to that above described in the use of my invention, and I am also aware that there has been designed for that purpose a combined account book and holder in which a series of ruled envelopes were detachably secured to the leaves of the book to hold the sales-slips and to receive the name of the customer and the entry of the amounts of the slips; but in the use of such book, when it was desired to send the customer a bill the items appearing on the face of the envelope had either to be copied off onto a separate bill-head or else the envelope itself had to be detached from the leaf of the book and sent to the customer as a bill. Either practice was objectionable, for in the first case, if the items were copied onto a separate bill-head and sent to the customer, the account could not be continued without detaching the envelope from the book and and, in the second case, if the envelope itself was detached and sent to the customer,itwas not a neat or business-like way in which to present a bill. There was no convenient place left in which to preserve the sales-slips until the bill was paid, unless a new envelope were immediately inserted in the place of the one removed, and every time a bill was rendered or an account closed and a new one opened it involved the loss of the old envelope and the expense of a new one and the trouble of attaching the latter to the book.

By the use of my improvement the bill can be sent to the customer in neat and regular form, the sales-slips be conveniently prethe same envelopes originally provided in ets C, permanently attached to said leaves,

and the loose bill-heads D, detachably secured to said envelopes or pockets, substantially as described.

JOHN H. PATTERSON.

Witnesses:

THOMAS CORWIN, W. P. KISER. 

